.. and downhere our part of the "Coalition of the Willing" wishes to gag debate, via this double-speak:

Quote:PM attacks student protest`Students protesting in anti-war rallies across Australia on Wednesday should have been in school rather than running amok on the streets, Prime Minister John Howard said. Thousands of primary and high school students ditched classes yesterday and took to the streets in sometimes wild protests against a war on Iraq.

Mr Howard said he was not ignoring the will of the public by sending troops to the Persian Gulf to prepare for war while thousands protested at home. But he said it was inappropriate for students to protest during school hours.`"I think most Australians take the view that young people of school age, of 13 and 14, ought to be at school during school hours," Mr Howard told Hobart radio HO-FM. "And I don't think it reflects particularly well on some schools that many of them appeared to be running amok and causing a lot of inconvenience to motorists, other members of the public and of the police.`"There is a time and a place for protests, I don't think that time or that place is by school students during school hours.`" I think they should be in school."

The Crossgates Mall security acted moronically. The Australian PM is on the money. How many of those 13-year olds would have shown up for an anti-war protest after school. Not many I dare say. These kids were taking advantage of a day out of class. I'm sure war was a secondary concern.

_________________________
In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. - FDR

our PM has no time for any debate on the matter, and ignores anybody who doesn't agree with him, presumably on the basis that he is the sole repository of wisdom on this matter.. unlike our Minister for Defence, our PM is unmoved, as is Blair, his partner in the "Coalition of the Willing"

Quote:Howard rejects global protests`The Prime Minister insists he will not be swayed by the human tide of protest against a war with Iraq - not by the more than 250,000 people who marched in Sydney yesterday, nor the 10 million who rallied worldwide.`"This is a very difficult issue and I accept a lot of Australian people don't agree with me," John Howard said in an interview broadcast last night, after his return from overseas. "I also suspect there are a lot of Australians who do, and they are not perhaps as noisy about it. And there are a lot of people in between."`Sydney's peace march from Hyde Park was the biggest in the country's history. In all, 500,000 Australians rallied around the nation at the weekend, while anti-war protests swept 600 towns and cities worldwide. But Mr Howard, who has remained a steadfast ally of the United States and Britain in their push against Iraq, told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes last night: "In the end, while I respect people's opinions and I listen to them ... my charge as prime minister is to make whatever decisions are in the interest of this country.`"And I believe the way we are handling this is in the best interests of Australia." Mr Howard said he was not convinced that the mass rallies proved public opinion was against a possible war.`In London, where at least a million people took to the streets, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, remained equally determined. He said there would be "no marches for the victims of Saddam, no protests about the thousands of children that die needlessly every year under his rule, no righteous anger over the torture chambers which, if he is left in power, will be left in being".

"The moral case against war has a moral answer," Mr Blair said. "It is the moral case for removing Saddam. It is not the reason we act. That must be according to the UN mandate on weapons on mass destruction. But it is the reason, frankly, why if we do have to act, we should do so with a clear conscience."`In Brisbane, the Opposition Leader, Simon Crean, told a rally of 50,000 that he was sick of Mr Howard saying he was on an overseas peace mission when he only talked about war. "Why hasn't he been listening to the people in Melbourne on Friday night, in Sydney today, in Adelaide today, in other parts of the country yesterday?" But Mr Crean was shouted down when he said Iraq must be disarmed, and that this may require a war with UN backing.`The Defence Minister, Robert Hill, acknowledged that the protests sent a message that the Government must do all it can to deal with the crisis peacefully. Earlier, Mr Howard told Channel Seven: "I don't know that you can measure public opinion just by the number of people who turn up to demonstrations. What I'm doing here is what I think is right for Australia. This is not something where you read each opinion poll or you measure the number of people at demonstrations."

Quote:"This is a very difficult issue and I accept a lot of Australian people don't agree with me,"

Geez, how many people does he need? Australians are renowned for the 'she'll be right, mate' attitude, and are not generally stirred to emotion like this. From memory, the last outpouring that even came close to this was the Vietnam War protests.

Any contributions for a hearing aid and seeing-eye dog for our cloistered leader?

_________________________The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not smashing it.

Quote: I'm surprised to hear that the demonstrations weren't only in the U.S., but Canada, Spain, England, Australia, Morocco, and probably many other places.

I'm shocked.

Why are you shocked, Lanni? Just curious!

Regarding the t-shirts in the mall: I saw them on TV yesterday, there was nothing offensive about them, plus, they were purchased in the self same mall. Wonderful the charges were dropped, but why all the controversy over "Give Peace a Chance"?

About the Australian PM's opinion of daytime student protests, he might be right there. They could have been held after school.

Oh, yes. I think it is insensitive to suggest that the sincerity of students of any age regarding this impending war is self-serving. They do have real fears and concerns and are helpless to do anything constructive about it. I applaud demonstrations. What else have we got left?

As for the students protesting... after our 'big storm' in DC, schools were cancelled for a week. But the students went on with their planned protest that Friday - the majority of those who showed up, according to a local news chanel, were ones whose classes had been cancelled.

But I do agree that the students should not be skipping classes - however, they're only harming themselves. (Yeah, I don't agree with the US system where you get detention for skipping - the Europeans say 'hey, if you fail - that's your fault because you skipped classes'.)

_________________________"Without the darkness, how would we see the light?" ~ Tuvok

I was hearing snippets about an impending student demonstration last week and didn’t really get the impression that it was going to be a worldwide event so to watch the news and see that the protests were in so many countries, it just blew me away.

ozzz, if you get enough contributions could you please provide the same for Mr Tony Blair he still seems convinced that he can get the British people behind him on this one.

By the way, I have two teenage children who haven't had an opportunity to demonstrate against the war but are both firmly against it. Why do people think that the views of adolescents should not be taken seriously, there are plenty of other ways of getting a couple of hours off school.